Public schools, struggling to compete with private programs, push for separate playoffs

Red Lion baseball ran into an impressive La Salle squad in the state quarterfinals on Thursday, June 7, 2018.
Jim Seip, York Daily Record

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Officials from about 150 public schools met in State College to discuss the possibility of separating from the PIAA if the body does not grant separate playoffs for public and non-public schools.(Photo: Matt Allibone, York Daily Record)Buy Photo

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Could public schools in Pennsylvania really secede from the PIAA?

According to some public school superintendents who spoke at Tuesday's PIAA Playoff Equity Summit in State College, that could become a goal in the near future if changes are not made. Those changes being, of course, the creation of separate playoffs for boundary (public) and non-boundary (private and charter) high schools in Pennsylvania.

Schools officials from nearly 150 public schools — roughly 29 percent of Pennsylvania public schools in the state — attended Tuesday's three-hour meeting to voice frustrations and concerns with recent PIAA proposals to address competitive balance, and to propose solutions.

YAIAA executive director Chuck Abbott was in attendance to represent local schools. Private school and PIAA officials were not invited.

The numbers

The numbers were broken into three categories: 1972 to 2008; 2008 to 2018; and a comprehensive list from 1972 through 2018. The reason for the breakdown was that the Philadelphia Catholic League — which has led to much of the public school's frustrations — was added in 2008.

The numbers show that the amount of private school championships have risen over the past 10 years. Not just in boys' basketball (5.3 percent to 29.5 percent), girls' basketball (52.8 percent to 59.1 percent) and football (13.8 percent to 50 percent), but also in sports like girls' volleyball (12.9 percent to 46.9 percent) and boys' soccer (12.3 percent to 25 percent). Some sports like track and field have seen private school state titles slightly drop over the past 10 years.

Still, those numbers weren't a good enough representation for the group of officials that met in State College, who believe the gap between boundary and non-boundary schools has gotten larger more recently than 2008.

The officials handed out another page of statistics highlighting state champions and runners-up from 2011 to 2017. In basketball, for example, 76 out of the 120 teams (63 percent) to make the state title game over those seven years came from non-boundary schools.

Bottom line: These statistics are why the school officials in attendance overwhelmingly want to create separate playoff tournaments.

Officials at the meeting handed out results from a survey sent to 207 public school officials in the state. According to the results, 99 percent of officials at those schools think private and charter schools have an unfair advantage, 94 percent would be in favor of separate playoffs and 72 percent don't think recent PIAA proposals to tighten transfer rules and create a competitive balance formula are a better idea than a separate playoff system.

In York and Adams counties, the survey was sent to Bermudian Springs, Fairfield, Gettysburg, Littlestown, Red Lion, York High and York Suburban.

Here's how those schools responded to these statements in the survey: 1. Yes, there's an unfair advantage. 2. Yes, playoffs should be separate. 3. Yes, the PIAA proposals will be more effective than separate playoffs.

Bermudian Springs Superintendent Shane Hotchkiss: Yes, Yes, No.

Fairfield Superintendent Karen Kugler: Yes, No, Yes

Gettysburg Superintendent Jason Perrin: Yes, Yes, No

Littlestown Superintendent Chris Bigger: Yes, No, No

Red Lion athletic director Arnold Fritzius: Yes, Yes, Yes

William Penn Superintendent Eric Holmes: Yes, Yes, No

York Suburban Principal Brian Ellis: Yes, No, Yes.

The only thing all seven surveyed schools agreed on was that private schools have an unfair advantage over public schools.

Chuck Abbott said the stance of the league is to support the PIAA. He called the idea to secede from the organization "pretty radical," and plans to discuss results from Tuesday's meeting at the next YAIAA athletic directors' meeting next month.

"I'd have to really sit down and weigh the pros and cons (of the proposals)," Abbott said. "The private and charter schools having all this success, do they have an advantage? Probably. But are high schools athletics all about winning that championship? I don't know."

YAIAA executive director Chuck Abbott, a former Susquehannock's athletic director, represented the league at Tuesday's PIAA Equity Summit in State College.

The solutions

A transfer rule will go into effect Aug. 6. and will prohibit students who transfer during the 10th grade and after from participating in the postseason for one year unless given a waiver.

A competitive balance formula will take into account enrollment size, athletic success and number of transfer athletes when deciding whether certain schools need to be bumped up a classification. That will not take effect until the 2020-21 school year.

"Transfer rules are part of this conversation, but transfers are a secondary issue," Leonard Rich said.

The public school officials discussed two possible solutions on Tuesday. The first would create a seventh classification for private and charter schools. And the second would put public schools back into four classifications, with private and charter schools entering two separate classifications.

That second proposal received overwhelming support when asked for a show of hands.

Under the proposed system, non-boundary schools would be divided in half, with the biggest programs going into Class 6A, and the smaller private schools going into Class 5A. From there, public schools would make up classes 1A through 4A.

Boundary and non-boundary schools could still play each other in the regular season, but not the postseason.

Additionally, this plan would prohibit student-athletes who transfer after the ninth grade from one year of varsity academic eligibility, though a formula would be developed for "mitigating circumstances." The transfer issue was debated throughout the meeting, with some officials — including Woodland Hills athletic director and former York High AD Ron Coursey — arguing that strict transfer rules can hurt students from minority communities that often need an athletic scholarship to go to college.

As for York and Adams counties, it would be interesting to see how York Catholic, Delone Catholic and York Country Day would fare in such a system, which would presumably place them in Class 5A. Those schools have certainly accepted transfers over the years, but would never be mistaken for schools like Neumann-Goretti.

"I don't think we've even gotten that far yet," Abbott said. "Not everybody is going to like decisions that are made. And that's life."

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Fairfield's Annabel Anderson is congratulated by teammate Haley Bolin after Fairfield girls' won the PIAA girls' soccer state championship against Shady Side on Friday Nov. 18, 2016 in Hershey.(Photo: Shane Dunlap, GameTimePA)

Moving forward

It's been brought up often that creating separate tournaments would require new legislation, since the 1972 law requires the PIAA to include nonpublic schools in its playoffs.

But some officials think that might not be true.

"We need to get an independent, legal opinion on the 1972 rule," New Castle Superintendent John Sarandrea said. "I will tell you the (Pennsylvania Athletic) Oversight Committee members I spoke to emphatically said the PIAA is allowed to create separate playoffs. However, the hierarchy in the PIAA is saying (the law) is what's prohibiting them."

According to direct text from the 1972 state law, "private schools shall be permitted, if qualified, to participate in postseason athletic contests with public schools."

So where does this contingent of public school officials go from here?

The "nuclear option" of trying to leave the PIAA will wait a year to be discussed again. In the meantime, the group hopes to meet with the oversight committee once state lawmakers return to session in September.

Until then, officials at the meeting were advised to continue the conversation about separate playoffs in their local communities.

"People are going to have to think about this," Abbott said. "There's going to have to be more time. Some of this is a gut reaction with the frustration level. I don't think this is going to happen immediately like some people want. It's going to be a process."

The PIAA issued a statement in response to the meeting in State College late Tuesday night that read, "The PIAA Board of Directors is made up of 32 diverse, elected representatives of all member schools and other constituencies, and represent each of the stakeholders present at today’s meeting in State College ... The Board anticipates that issues pertaining to eligibility and competitive equity will be forwarded to the Board through the proper channels, at which point they will be addressed."